Hungarian Grammar for Beginners

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Finally we got to possession. And now I’m telling you what I’ve been telling you all along. Remember how to make nouns plural because that can help when we discuss the possessive case. But first an evident question:

DO I HAVE TO HAVE?

And the answer is NO. English uses the verb ‘to have’, a transitive verb to express possession: I have a house, They have no money…

Hungarian, in turn, uses a whole different method when it comes to expressing possession of this kind. Even if there is a verb similar to ‘to have’, birtokolni, it would sound constrained if we wanted to use this verb for this special purpose. Hungarian uses such a construction: DATIVE PRONOUN + SUBSTANTIVE VERB 3rd PS or 3rd PP + INDEFINITE ARTICLE + NOUN WITH POSSESSIVE ENDING

I know it’s long to write it down like that, so let’s see this example: I have ahouse – Nekemvanegyházam.

In everyday language, the dative pronoun and the indefinite article are omitted or can be omitted, so you can also say: Van házam. So it is mandatory to use the substantive verb van/vannak and the noun with its possessive endings. More examples:

Sok türelmükvan. – They have a lot of patience.
Macskáid is vannak? – Do you have some cats, too?Nincs pénzem. – I have no money.

NOTE! The substantive verb is van or vannak, depending on whether someone owns one thing or more than one thing. The negative form isnincs/nincsenek:

Nincs autóm. – I have no car./ Nincsenek barátaim – I have no friends. Summary:

Because of the topic-prominent aspect, you can also say: Autóm nincs. Házunk van. In this case you put an emphasis on what you have: It is a carthat I don’t have. It is a housethat we have. But English usually solves this problem with verbal emphasis. The bold letters show the most important thing in the sentence now. So here are your possibilities:

Van barátnőm. – I have a girlfriend.Barátnőm van. – I have a girlfriend. (It is a girlfriend that I have)Nincs barátnőm. – I have no girlfriend.Barátnőm nincs. – As for a girlfriend, I don’t have any.

ONE MORE THING! I forgot to mention that the singular negative verb nincs has another version: nincsen. You choose which to use.

POSSESSIVE CASE

Once again, I presume you already know how to make nouns plural!! That knowledge will help you deal with the possessive case, just as it helped you with the accusative case.

First we should make it clear: there is no genitive in Hungarian. It is called the possessive case.

Alrighty. Hungarian possession is expressed withpossessive endings and possessive pronouns. And the English equivalents are:

Apparently, there is only one ending for all numbers/persons. It looks like there are too many because link vowels are added to them if needed. It is always -m for 1st PS and we add link vowels if needed. It is always -d for 2nd PS and we add link vowels if needed. Etc.

NOTE! No different ending for masculine and feminine as Hungarian doesn’t care about genders. It’s just about the right possessive ending for high and deep-vowel words.

Let’s get started!

Group 1:The vowels A, E become Á, É when at the very end of a noun (like nouns: apa – apák)

méhei– her wombs (méh has two meaning: bee and womb)
fejei– his heads
begyei– its crops
gyerekei – his children
asztalai – his tables
fényei– his lights
kulacsai – his gourds
hasai – his stomachs
bajuszai – his moustaches (if it made sense in plural) 🙂
mezei– his shirts
varázsai – his magics

Simple. The definite articles (a, az) are ALWAYS used with possessive case except one occasion when it is optional. It is optional when the sentence begins with a noun in the possessive case. Then you can choose if you use it or not.

That’s the plural for the possessive case. More next time, but first practise possessive plural with these words. I’ll give you the person and number you should put these nouns in. ONE PROPERTY means you use the singular endings. MORE PROPERTIES means you use the plural endings.

Example: macska – macskám(1st PS) one property

ebéd – ______________ (3rd PS) one property

férj – ______________ (1st PP) one property

ház – _______________ (2nd PS) more properties

gyerek – ______________ (2nd PP) more properties

adat – ________________ (3rd PS) more properties

SOLUTION TO THE EXERCISES

ebédje

férjünk

házaid

gyerekeitek

adataik

A T T E N T I O N!

3rd person singular az ő háza = his house
az ő házuk = their house

3rd person plural az ő házai = his houses
az ő házaik = their houses

POSSESSIVE WITH ACCUSATIVE CASE

Once learned how to form the singular and plural in possessive case, you only add –at or -et to the word.

BUT!

The form of 1st and 2nd person singular do not necessarily require the accusative case. Those forms can be considered both subjective and accusative as they are. You choose if you make accusative those forms!

This summary shows you which endings can have link vowels and how they change in the plural.

EMPHASIS ON THE POSSESSOR

So far, we haven’t really dealt with personal pronouns. It is because Hungarian personal pronouns are only used in point of possession when the possessor needs to be stressed. In this case, the definite article must be used. Example:

If you want to stress the possessor even more, put the possessive pronoun at the beginning of the sentence. You can do that due to the topic-prominent aspect: Enyém a megtiszteltetés. – The honour is mine.

NOTE! tied also has this form: tiéd AND mienk has this form: miénk. The e can be an é in the singular form. No difference in meaning. You choose which to use.

A kocsi a tied. – The car is yours.
A kocsi a tiéd. – The car is yours.

As the substantive verb (van, vannak) is not used in 3rd PS and 3rd PP (as you see in the examples), think of the definite article replacing the substantive verb in a such a context: A kocsi a tied. – The car is yours.

WHOSE?

The question Whose? is Kié? in Hungarian. Kié? is is the combination of the interrogative word Ki? (Who?) + the suffix -é, which is the equivalent to the English …’s: Whose is this book? It’s Peter‘s.

There are two questions for Whose?: Kié? Kinek a? There is no difference between them, use whichever you want.

The answer (the possessor) gets that -é suffix attached to the end of a common noun or a proper name, too:

You see it doesn’t matter which question word you use. Kié? is just as good as Kinek a(z)?, but note the grammatical issues in those two sentences.

Kié? does not require the property (könyv) to have a possessive ending.Kinek a? requires the property (könyve) to have a possessive ending.

And the explanation is simple. Remember this? “A férfi felesége” (The man’s wife): feleség needs the possessive ending-e because that expresses a possession. And the sentence also can be: a férfinak a felesége. But you don’t have to use -nak a, -nek a if you don’t want to, or there is no need for it (Remember all those stuff? ).

That’s why the property needs a possessive ending when answering to Kinek a? As this question has -nek a in it, we insert the sema suffix in the answer, too. (Am I complicated enough ?)

You also can make those questions plural (Kiék? Kiknek a?)if you ask about more properties, but the answer already indicates if there is one or more than one property.

Alright. Digest this part first and next time I’ll tell you more about it. Til then, examples for you:

A kép az enyém. / A képek az enyéim.
A kép a tied. / A képek a tieid.
A kép az övé. / A képek az övéi.
A kép a mienk. / A képek a mieink.
A kép a tietek. / A képek a tieitek.
A kép az övék. / A képek az övéik.

A felelősség a miénk. – The responsibility is ours.Miénk a felelősség. – The responsibility is ours. Ours is the responsibility.

A házad nagy. – Your house is big.
A nagy ház a tiéd. – The big house is yours.Tiéd a nagy ház. – The big house is yours. Yours is the big house.

OF VS. ‘S

If you want to express that something belongs to someone, you use the preposition of, or you attach ‘s to the end of the noun, or both: John‘s wife, the essence of the question, the color of the dog‘s kennel

Such Hungarian sentences are formed with the possessive endings and these suffixes: -nak a, -nek a

With one property, these suffixes can be omitted. With more properties, -nak a, -nek a must be used at least with one of the properties.

John‘s wife – Jánosnaka felesége OR János felesége
the essence of the question – a kérdésneka lényege OR a kérdés lényege
the color of the dog‘s kennel – a kutya házánaka színe

In the first two examples there is only one property: wife, essence. In the third one we have two properties: color, kennel, so it is a must to use -nak a with ház. You don’t have to use it with kutya because that would sound constrained. BUT it is always important to have a possessive ending attached to the property which sometimes is present before -nak a, -nek a, too(a házának a: because ház is a possessor and a property!)

The Hungarian word order is the same when English uses ‘s: POSSESSOR +PROPERTY!

a kocsi kereke OR a kocsinaka kereke (the wheel of the car; literally: the car’s wheel)

After all, it’s not the same: az ember(nek a) hatalma – the power of the man (the man’s power)
ORa hatalom(nak az) embere – the man of the power (the power’s man)

What is the function of dative case? It describes a situation when something is done for/to someone/something. Example:

Könyvet adok a barátomnak. – I give a book to my friend./I give my friend a book.

Nouns put in dative case is called indirect object according to the English concept!

The suffixes for it are: -NAK, -NEK. The suffix -nak is for deep-vowel nouns and adjectives, -nek for high-vowel nouns and adjectives. English equivalent is: preposition to/for or a pronoun as indirect object (I give him a book).

NOTE! The dative case doesn’t require any link vowel! You just add -nak or -nek to the noun or adjective. But you can put plural nouns in dative case. You do that by making the noun plural first and then adding -nak or -nek. I’ll write the examples with an English preposition. That way, you can compare the English sentence to the Hungarian one.

Puszit adok alánynak. – I give a kiss on the cheek to the girl.
Puszit adok alányoknak. – I give a kiss on the cheek to the girls.

Ajándékot hoztam a csapatnak. – I brought a gift for the team.
Ajándékot hoztam a csapatoknak. – I brought a gift for the teams.

Ne mondj ilyet a gyereknek! – Don’t say such a thing to the child.
Ne mondj ilyet a gyerekeknek! – Don’t say such a thing to the children.

That’s all you have to know about dative case. We’re through with it.

SUMMARY FOR PLURAL, ACCUSATIVE AND DATIVE

You see that the plural and the accusative case are based on each other. If you know the plural, you know the accusative. And you have no problem with the dative case at all, since it has no link vowels. What you should remember is this: MAKE NOUNS PLURAL FIRSTand thenMAKE THEM ACCUSATIVE OR DATIVE.

Of course, it doesn’t make any sense making a noun accusative and dative! Don’t do this: a lánytnak. It just makes no sense.

The accusative case has a very important role in the Hungarian language. It makes sentences with a fairly free word order possible. The suffix for it is: -t

What is it all about?

An English direct object must be in a certain position in the sentence so that it can be recognized. A Hungarian direct object is fitted with -t, thus can be recognized anywhere in the sentence. Example:

I SEE THE RIVER. What do I see? The river. River is the direct object which has to have the suffix -t in Hungarian. The Hungarian translation is: Látom a folyót

Nouns ending in any other short vowel never behave like A and E when adding -t. Those vowels (i, ö, u, ü) always stay short: aput (dad), kocsit (car), revüt (revue). Hungarian words never end in short O or Ö, so there is no trouble with them.

Group 2: High -vowel nouns take the accusative suffix -ET or -ÖT. The rules for the plural form with -ET/-ÖT are the same as those for -EK/-ÖK in nominative case: fülek/fület (ear); kürtök/kürtöt (horn)

As you see, vászon is an exception within the exception: the O becomes A. Some nouns like sarok (ankle/corner) have two versions: sarkat (ankle)/sarkot (corner). You can take a look at the rest of them if you download the book in the ‘Download the grammar book’ category.

There are dozens of nouns like these above, but there is no rule for them. It is a matter of memorization. Most nouns having similar forms don’t change: tányér – tányérok – tányért (plate), méz – mézek – mézet (honey), etc. Usually nouns ending in -ár/-ér, -ál/-él fall under this shortened vowel category.

Group 6:V- NOUNS

V-nounsget a V inserted in the plural and in the accusative, too. Those few words are:

There is no need to worry about Hungarian nouns. As there is no gender discrimination, nouns are neither masculine nor feminine. We don’t have neuter nouns, either. They are nouns just like in English.

In English, the plural is formed in this way: houses, oxen, and there are a couple of exceptions for different reasons like fish, information, advice, police, people, man/men, child/children…

Hungarian plural is formed the suffix -k. You add that -k to the end of the nouns like this: méhek (bees), emberek (people), házak (houses), állomások (stations). So far so good. The difficulty is that there are exceptions worthy of consideration.

Any other vowel is free from this rule. You just add -k to end of a noun: kapuk (gates), padlók (floors), erdők (forests), kesztyűk (gloves).

NOTE! Hungarian nouns never end in Á, É, O, Ö!

Rule 2: If nouns end a in consonant or two, it would be difficult even for us to pronounce them with the -k suffix. That’s way we need a vowel between the noun and the plural suffix -k. It’s called LINK VOWEL. Link vowels can be: o, a, e, ö.

3. Some monosyllabic deep-vowel nouns containing a, á take the plural -AK (because of historical reasons). I’m going to write just a few of them. You can see and learn the rest in the book you can download:

kádak (bath-tubs), falak (walls), halak (fish), gyárak (factories)

4. Monosyllabic deep-vowel nouns ending in two consonantsand having a, á either take -OK or -AK. No rules for them. You’d better memorize them.

Drop-vowel nounssuffer some kind of mutation when made plural (and also accusative. Later about that). Let’s see this example: BOKOR (bush)

Step 1: Remove the last vowel BOKOR and you get this: BOKR

Step 2: Figure out what link vowel you need. In this case, it’s logical. We need O: BOKRO

Step 3: Add the plural suffix -K: BOKROK

BOKOR – bushBOKROK – bushes

There are a couple of nouns like bokor. I’ll give you a few examples. Please check the rest of the nouns belonging to this category in the ‘Download the grammar book’ section. Listing them all would take a lot of space in this entry.

I cannot give you an exact number of how many nouns like these above exist because -alom, -elem turn verbs into nouns. It depends on what you would like to say.

NOUNS WITH THE LAST VOWEL SHORTENED

With these nouns it is easy to know the plural. -Ek for high-vowel nouns, -AK for deep-vowel nouns. This concerns nouns containing Á or É in that last closed syllable.

Let me show two examples of ‘last vowel change’:

MADÁR (bird)
MADARAK (birds)

EGÉR (mouse)
EGEREK (mice)

You see the Á becomes A and the noun takes the plural -AK, as well, as the É becomes E and the noun takes the plural -EK. That’s it. These nouns (and those two above) are the ones you should be careful with:

Note that usually nouns ending in -ár/-ér, -ál/-él are subject to such changes. There are a couple of them, so they should be memorized. Most of the nouns with similar forms are regular: tálak (dishes), határok (boundaries), etc.

V-NOUNS

V-nouns get a V inserted in the plural. High-vowel nouns take the plural suffix -EK, deep-vowel nouns take the suffix -AK. Furthermore, the long vowel (ő, ű, ó) becomes short (ö, ü, o) in the plural. Just a few words belong there:

Hungarian attributive adjectives are like their English fellows. They precede nouns and under this condition they’re unmarked for case, that is they must not made plural, accusative and so on…They’re just adjectives like in English. Examples:

Hungarian predicative adjectives are part of predicative expressions and so they follow nouns and are MARKED FOR CASE! Example:

A lány szép. – The girl is beautiful.
A lányok szépek. – The girls are beautiful.

NOTE! Hungarian predicative adjectives do not use the substantive verb (van, vannak) in 3rd person singular and plural when in present tense. You see English uses ‘is’ and ‘are’ in such sentences. Hungarian doesn’t! In any other person/number and tense, they must be used. Compare:

NOTE! In such sentences the substantive verb is at the end of the sentence: Kedvesek vagytok. – You’re (pl) kind. Furthermore, such sentences are fitted with predicative adjectives, so I used the personal pronouns to have a visible subject, but these pronouns can be omitted: Szépek vagytok and so on…

And one more thing! As these are sentences with predicative adjectives, the adjectives are to be made plural in the plural numbers and persons: SZÉPEK vagyunk (we’re beautiful), and notSZÉP vagyunk!

As predicative adjectives are marked for case, they can take suffixes nouns also can! Since you already know the accusative case (I hope ), let’s take a look at adjectives made accusative. In such sentences English has this solution: the + adjective + one. Now let’s see what I’m talking about:

Which one do you choose? – The red one.Melyiket választod? – A pirosat. (piros-red is made accusative singular because I choose it, it’s a direct object!)

Which one do you choose? – The red ones.Melyiket választod? – A pirosakat. (piros is made accusative plural because I choose them, it’s a direct object!)

Which are you talking about? – (About) the red one.Melyikről beszélsz? – A pirosról. (with suffix -ról corresponding with the preposition ‘about’ in this sentence)

-The bus driver hit the car. – The blue one? -No, the red one.
-A buszvezető nekiment a kocsinak. –A kéknek? -Nem, a pirosnak. (Now with the suffix -nak because the verb requires this suffix, while English requires a simple object ‘hit something’)

I recommend you read this through over and over again. Next time we’ll talk about how to make adjectives plural! But I’ll give you a summary about this entry.

SUMMARY

Attributive adjectives:– precede nouns and are unmarked for case, that is they must not take any suffix.

Predicative adjectives:– follow nouns and are marked for case, whatever case is needed.
– The 3rd person singular and plural (van, vannak) of the substantive verb is omitted in present tense. But they’re required in any other person/number and tense!
– Remember to make adjectives plural in such sentences when needed (in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural).

PLURAL ADJECTIVES

Like nouns, adjectives can be made plural, too. Remember those groups for nouns? We have groups (quite) like that for adjectives. Let’s get started!

The plural suffix is -k like for nouns! We also use link vowels if necessary.

Group 1: Adjectives ending in certain vowels

1. If the final vowel is A, E in an adjective, it becomes Á, É. (the same situation as for nouns)

laza – lazák (loose), enyhe – enyhék (mild)

2. Adjectives ending in long Ó, Ő take the plural -K or -AK, -EK. And how you know when to use what? Adjectives that are already used as nouns take -K. Real adjectives can take -K or -AK, -EK. Of course, you should take heed of vowel harmony like always.

b. Remember the rules for nouns whose last syllable is ö, ő, ü, ű? Actually, I don’t recall one single adjective with that characteristics unless it has a suffix to make the word adjective. If you ever meet such a word, let’s just say such adjectives can take both -EK and -ÖK. You choose. I’d like to give you an example of an old word not used anymore. That word is: gőzös.

Gőzös is an old word for train (the modern day word for train is vonat). This word is made up of the noun gőz meaning steam and the suffix -ös. Literally meaning steamy. If you put this word in the plural with -ÖK, gőzösök, it refers to trains. If you use the plural -EK with it, gőzösek, it refers to several things that are full of steam. Well, we don’t use this word anymore, just an example for a possible difference in meaning. BUT it already has the suffix -ÖS!

c. High-vowel suffixes creating adjectives take -EK or -ÖK. Memorize them please. You don’t have to know what these suffixes mean (yet), but if you see them, you know how to make them plural.

Note! The word ifjú can be heard from elder people. Nowadays the word fiatal is used for young whose plural is fiatalok. However, when talking about the youth, the noun ifjúság is often heard. You can choose:

Az ifjúság engedetlen. – The youth is disobedient.A fiatalok engedetlenek. – The young are disobedient.

positive: Peter is as tall as Adam. / Peter is not as tall as Adam.
comparative: Peter is tallerthan Adam./ Peter is less tallerthan Adam.
superlative: Peter is the tallest of all./ Peter is the least tall of all.

And it looks like this in Hungarian:

POSITIVE: no suffix is used but the following adverb pairs: olyan…mint; nem olyan…mint; ugyanolyan…mint; nem ugyanolyan…mint

Péter olyan okos, mint Dávid. – Peter is as smart as David.
Dávid nem olyan okos, mint Ádám. – David is not so smart as Adam.
Péter ugyanolyan magas, mint Ádám. – Peter is the same tall as Adam.
Dávid nem ugyanolyan magas, mint Ádám. – David is not the same tall as Adam.

Or you can say nem annyira instead of olyan. Everyday language uses both of them. NOTE! You compare things/people like this: (nem) annyira…mint

Péter annyira okos, mint Ádám. – Peter is as smart as Adam.
Dávid nem annyira okos, mint Ádám. – David is not as smart as Adam.

COMPARATIVE: is expressed with the suffix -bb, sometimes with a link vowel if needed: -obb, -abb, -ebb. The second part of this comparison can be mint (like above) or the suffixes -nál/-nél. The word mint is the only preposition in Hungarian. If something or someone is compared in a negative way, the adverb kevésbé can be used, meaning less.

SUPERLATIVE: expressed with a leg-…-bb, sometimes with a link vowel (-obb, -abb, -ebb). Note the only prefix in Hungarian is leg-!

Péter a legnagyobb. – Peter is the tallest.
Dávid a legkisebb. – David is the smallest.
Sanyi a legokosabbmind közül. / Sanyi a legokosabbköztük. – Alex is the smartestof all.
Anna viszont meglepően a legszexisebb! – Ann, in turn, is surprisingly the sexiest!
A gulyás a legjobb étel a világon. – Goulash is the best meal in the world.

Before jumping into ‘How to make nouns plural?’, we should talk about the articles. But first things first. Let’s see the solutions to the exercises in last blog entry.

ablakon, repülőtől, bankban, egyetemen, állomáson

– ablak contains deep vowel, so it takes the suffix -ban
– repülő is high vowel, so it takes -től
– bank is deep vowel, it takes -ban
– egyetem is unequivocally a high-vowel word, so it takes -en
– állomás is definitely a deep-vowel word, so it takes -on

Were you answers good? I hope so . If not, practice, practice, practice. And now the articles!

Hungarian articles can be definite and indefinite like in English. There are two definite articles: a, az (the). There’s only one indefinite article: egy (a, an).

The definite article a is used with words beginning with a consonant: atábla (the board), a férfi (the man).The definite article az is used with words beginning with a vowel: az állat (the animal), az erdő (the forest).

The indefinite article egy is used both with words beginning with a vowel or consonant: egy tábla (a board), egy férfi (a man), egy állat (an animal), egy erdő (a forest). The thing about the indefinite article is that it is a weak/not stressed form of the number egy (one). If you say ‘egy tábla’, the stress is on tábla. If you talk about ONE board and no more than that, the stress is on egy.

Exercises: choose the proper form. The English examples will help you.

a / az ? ablak – the window

a / az ? konyha – the kitchen

egy / a ? ajtó – a door

az / egy ? kalap – a hat

a / egy / az ? élet – a life, the life

After learning how to put nouns in the plural, I’ll write an entry about the use of Hungarian articles which many times differs from English. And most importantly, all you have to deal with is A, AZ, EGY. Hungarian articles are NOT PUT IN ANY CASE OR NUMBER, much like in English.

-One letter is one sound (if you know how to pronounce a letter, you say it exactly like that in every word)
-No gender discrimination (much like in English)
-Adjectives are unmarked when preceding nouns (like in English)
-There is only one present tense, one past tense and the future tense is often expressed with present tense
-Only 14(-20) irregular verbs in the entire language!!
-No striking dialect variations (if you can speak Hungarian, you’ll understand people in the whole country)

Here are some reasons why Hungarian is a difficult language:

-Two ways to conjugate verbs (definite and indefinite)
-Some vowels and consonants are not present in English, or they’re said in a slightly different way
-It is an agglutinative language, that is suffixes are attached to the end of the word. Prepositions are quite unknown. There is only one of them ‘mint’.

Vowels – A a

The Hungarian a is different from anything you know in English. Well almost. You don’t say it as the a in cat or the a in access.

The simplest explanation is the interrogative word: WHAT. The a in what is the closest thing I can refer to if I have to explain native English speakers how to say it. Many books, websites and teachers teach nonsense like “The phoneme a is to be pronounced as o in hot”. It is important for you to understand that Hungarian a has no correlation with any kind of o. Yes, it’s between á (sound like u in cup) and o (sound like o in hot with British pronunciation), but still, it’s definitely not similar to o.

Practice saying these Hungarian words by saying WHAT first and then the Hungarian words:

– c is pronounced like ts in tsunami
– cs is pronounced like ch in change, church. You always write c and s together if you want to write that ch sound

C = TS (tsunami)CS = CH (change)

Practice these words:

cica (kitten)cukor (sugar)
kelepce (trap)

csend (silence)
kacsa (duck)csapat (team)

Consonants – DZ dz, DZS dzs

There’s no need to worry about these consonants. They are present in a few words.

– dz is pronounced like ds in Hudson. The letter dz is a digraph, that is two letters give one sound.– dzs is pronounced like j in jungle. The letter dzs is a trigraph, that is three letters give one sound.

H is not really a difficult consontant, but needs an explanation. Fundamentally, it is never a mute h! You always say it like in these words: hit, hat, honey. However, there are some exceptions when h is at the end of certain words. These three words are said without that h sound!

méh (bee), rüh (mange), düh (anger)

If they get a suffix, then h is pronounced again: méhek (bees), rühes (mangy), dühös (angry)

Other words ending in h are fully pronounced: doh (fustiness), potroh (abdomen of an insect)

Consonants – J j, LY ly

If you remember, there are two sounds in Hungarian alphabet, which are pronounced as y in yellow. These are

J and LY

And the difference? There is no difference between j and ly. You say both like y in yellow. The difference occurs in written form. Due to historical reasons, some words are written with j, some with ly. However, there is only one word beginning with ly: lyuk (hole). Let’s see some examples:

Now listen to this part carefully! These two sounds are quite in the way of driving foreign students crazy. I think you’ve already realized why.

In English, the S sound is to be said like s in see, spoon and sound itself . The SH combination, however, is said like in ship, Ashton.

NOW COMES THE IMPORTANT PART!

The Hungarian S sound is pronounced like the English SH!!!

AND

The Hungarian SZ sound is pronounced like the English S!!! Furthermore, note that this sound is created with S+Z! So if you see a word like ASZTAL (table), you don’t say s and z separately, but you say this digraph as one sound, like the English S.

Difficult? Not really. You just need to practice and memorize them.

Let’s see examples:

seb (wound)sas (eagle)só (salt – said like show in English)
has (belly – almost said like HUSH or HAH-SH)
esik (to fall, to rain)
ás (to dig)

We’ve arrived to the ’odd’ number 13. So now we’ll take a look at these four strange consonants: q, w, x, y.

What’s important about these consonants is that they are present in loan-words as they were adopted from abroad.

Q is actually not quite present in Hungarian words. The explanation is this: foreign words usually have q followed by u, that is qu. QUANTUM, AQUARIUM and so on. Hungarian transcribes these two letters into KV! Examples: quantum – kvantum; aquarium – akvárium, quartz – kvarc, quasar – kvazár

W is pronounced like the simple V! That is: watt is written like watt, but said as vatt. Other example:

English people say “I’m going to the toilet”, while Hungarian people say “WC-re megyek.” We use the abbreviation for water closet and say it like VÉCÉ, that is VA(Y)-TSA(Y) or VE(Y)-TSE(Y). I hope it’s some help at least.

Y is NOT PRONOUNCED in any way! The letter itself is called IPSZILON and has one job in Hungarian: to make g, l, n, t unvoiced!

g+y = gy
l+ y = lyn+ y = ny
t +y = ty

Consonants – Z z vs. ZS zs

Z vs. ZS is much easier than S vs. SZ.

– z is pronounced likez in zero, zap, zest. It’s the same as its English fellow.
– zs is pronounced likes in pleasure, g in genre, or j in the French name Jean. If you see Z and S together in a word like ZSEB (pocket), you don’t say it separately, but like those S, G, J in those words

As written in the book you can download in the Download the grammar book/More to Hungarian category, there are short and long vowels, and consonants are to be pronounced long/doubled if written doubled. It’s important since the length of these sounds changes the meaning of a word.

VOWELS: are either front or back vowel words. The Hungarian term is high (magas) and deep (mély) words. From now on I’ll refer to them like that. HIGH AND DEEP.

Vowels written without accent are: a, e, o, uVowels written with one long accent (stroke on the top) are: á, é, í, ó, ú
Vowels written with two long accents are: ő, ű
Vowels written with two dots on the top are: ö, ü
There is only one vowel written with one dot: i

The capitalized versions of these vowels are the same A, Á, E, É, Í, O, Ó, Ö, Ő, U, Ú, Ü, Ű except the capitalized I which has no dot on the top.

Now let’s see how vowels can change the meaning of a word. In English, it should be familiar to some extent: hat, hit – cat, cut – pet, put…